Anjem Choudray, a British-born lawyer, angered the Irish Government last year when, speaking at Trinity College, he said that Ireland risked becoming a target for a 9/11 style attack because it allowed US war planes to refuel at Shannon Airport.

Well, Mr. Choudray is at it again. This time, besides reiterating controversial views that Muslim violence is justified in certain circumstances before addressing a Trinity College debate in Dublin, Anjem Choudray also said that the flag of Islam should be flown over Leinster House.

His reason?

“As a Muslim, I believe Islam is superior to every other way of life and that it can resolve all the social and economic problems that Ireland suffers from. And as a symbol of that, the flag of Islam should be flown over the Dáil. This is symbolic of the fact that all societies will be run better according to God’s law.”

Right. Just look at the socio-economic advancements in the Islamic societies of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Palestine, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. All great examples of solutions to the socio-economic problems of the world. Mr. Choudray must think all kafirs are fools - or liberals.

Referring to the US military stopovers at Shannon Airport, he said tonight: “If US warplanes are using Irish soil, then Ireland is seen as aiding and abetting the war on so-called terror. “Ireland says it has a position of neutrality but I don’t think it is seen that way in the Muslim world at all.”

Mr. Choudray, is there anything that Muslims see as neutral in the world? Any criticism, real or imagined, or any behavior of the kafir that does not bow down to the wishes of the Islamic masters will be seen as an affront to Muslims.

Military toy roundup

The U.S. military is overseeing the development of an advanced tactical laser (ATL) being called revolutionary.

The Advanced Tactical Laser will be fired from C-130H air transport and have a range of up to 20 miles. Popular ScienceThe laser is the centerpiece of an advanced concept technology demonstration program led by Boeing.

In a $200 million test program, Boeing has begun flights for the ATL to determine the feasibility of an airborne-mounted, high-energy laser for urban warfare and other missions.

ATL would be used in so-called low-power flight tests to track ground targets at White Sands Missile Range, NM. A low-power, solid-state laser will serve as a surrogate for ATL's high-power chemical laser in tests meant to last through the fall.

The laser is mounted on a C-130H air transport. The hardware includes the beam director and optical control bench, designed to direct the laser to its target; weapon system consoles to display high-resolution imagery and enable target tracking, and sensors.

On Sept. 21, Boeing, joined by L-3 Communications and Hytec, fired the high-energy chemical laser for the first time in ground tests in Albuquerque. Executives said the test team would fire the laser through a rotating turret that extends through an existing 50-inch-diameter hole in the aircraft's belly.

UAV market booming worldwide

WASHINGTON — After a slow start, the United States has become the leading developer and marketer of unmanned aerial vehicles.

A report by Frost and Sullivan said that the war in Iraq has driven recent successes in the UAV market. The UAVs are being purchased by all services in the U.S. military as well as abroad.

"The U.S. unmanned aerial systems market has had considerable momentum due to recent operational successes and increasing mission roles," the report by the Palo Alto, Calif. consultancy said.

Get ready for stories about how Khameini is a moderate

Power struggle: Khamenei assembles foreign policy group to sideline Ahmadinejad

GERTZ.............

LONDON — Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei is moving to wrest control from his emerging rival, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

(How, the thinking goes, can Israel or America drop their guard–international popularity be damned–when Iran’s supreme ruler, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, blasts the pontiff’s words as "the latest link in the chain of a crusade against Islam started by America's Bush"? The Pope’s remarks, insisted Khameini, were part of a U.S.-Zionist conspiracy to foment inter-religious strife. And the Brits and the French think Iran is less of a threat to life and limb than the Israeli occupation of the West Bank? What kind of world are we living in? )

Khamenei has ordered the creation of a foreign policy council that would be solely responsible to the ruling cleric. In a decree, Khamenei said the Strategic Council for Foreign Relations, formed on June 25, would facilitate decisions on foreign policy. "It's the first time Khamenei has asserted control since Ahmadinejad took over the presidency," a Western intelligence analyst said. "Until now, Khamenei has taken a back seat to Ahmadinejad."

For Ayatollah Ali Khameini, Iran’s spiritual leader, “the presence of Zionists in the region is a satanic and cancerous presence and an infected tumor for the entire world of Islam.”

Analysts said the council could become Khamenei's back channel to the United States amid the Western incentive package for Teheran to terminate its uranium enrichment program. Ahmadinejad, backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has dismissed any prospect of an enrichment suspension.

Iran's Supreme Leader," Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khameini, in a meeting with visiting Prime Minister of Singapore Goh Chok Tong on Tuesday, spoke about world terrorism, including the beheadings of foreign civilians taking place in Iraq. "We seriously suspect the agents of the Americans and Israelis," Khameini said, according to Iran's IRNA news agency, "in conducting such horrendous terrorist moves, and cannot believe that the people who kidnap Filipino nationals, for instance, or behead U.S. nationals are Muslims." Khameini also said on Tuesday that drug addiction and ethical wrongdoings amongst Iran's youth were the fault of the Americans and Zionists, IRNA reported: "There is no doubt that the hands and brains of the enemies are behind the conspiracy of drug addiction and ethical lawlessness."

Former Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi, a longtime proponent of reconciliation with the United States, heads the council. Kharazi, a critic of Ahmadinejad, said Khamenei "sensed a deficiency" in the implementation of Iran's foreign policy.

100% Vagina

Many Britons have praised Straw for bringing up a delicate issue in a reasonable way. But Fareena Alam, editor of Q-News, a Muslim magazine, said she believed that Straw's comments were a cynical attempt to boost his own political fortunes and that his calls for debate were "complete rubbish, irritating and patronizing." She said the controversy had driven more Muslim women to start wearing the niqab in "rebellion."

That has to be the lamest rebellion in history.

Alam said the situation has stifled serious and nuanced debate about the issue, as Muslims who believe that their religion is under attack from outsiders instinctively side with Muslim women who wear veils. She said she recently talked to two traditional Islamic scholars who said the full-face veil was "out of place in the West" and a "barrier to integration."

Unh-hunh.

"They are not saying anything different from Jack Straw," said Alam, who does not wear a niqab. "But it has to come from the right place. What Jack Straw said really rubbed people the wrong way. They are saying, 'I'm going to wear this because you don't want me to.' "

Yes, these Muslims have the mentality of a 5-year-old. The fact that a kaafir was correct in pointing out a retrograde Islamic practice is besides the point. You see, his intentions were malicious. (Little known fact: Muslims have psychic abilities.)

Two high ranking Hamas members on trial in the US

Abdelhaleem Ashqar, 48, of Alexandria, Va. and Muhammad Salah, 53, a suburban Chicago grocer, leave the federal building after the second day of their trial Friday, Oct. 20, 2006. Ashqar and Salah are charged in a four-count racketeering indictment with furnishing the money and fresh recruits to Hamas.

Federal prosecutors charge that Muhammad Salah of Bridgeview, IL and Abdelhaleem Ashqar of suburban Washington, D.C., aided terrorism from the United States as active members of the Palestinian extremist group Hamas.

(Chicago Tribune) "Since at least 1989, these two defendants have supported and aided Hamas from right here in the United States," [Assistant US Atty. Carrie] Hamilton said.

Hamilton detailed a conversation federal agents recorded between Ashqar and a top Hamas member in which they allegedly discussed a suicide bomber who blew himself up before reaching his final destination.

She told jurors that agents seized thousands of documents related to Hamas from Ashqar's previous home in Oxford, Miss.

Below is his campaign poster. Note that he is wearing a GPS ankle bracelet in the bottom right inset.

(Chicago Tribune) The only evidence that Salah was a Hamas leader comes from a statement he gave while in Israeli custody in 1993, [Salah's attorney] Deutsch said.

The statement was the product of physical and psychological torture Salah endured for more than 50 days and should not be considered as evidence in a U.S. court, he said.

Hamilton said that Salah provided the statement voluntarily and that it included damning corroborating evidence, including Salah's knowledge of the burial site of an Israeli soldier kidnapped and murdered by members of Hamas.

Salah spent four years in an Israeli prison after confessing to being a leader of Hamas. He returned to the U.S. in 1997 and was immediately put under federal surveillance.

Have you noticed that a week doesn't go by without a news that Muslim terrorists or terrorism supporters go on trial?

Defamation Suit Filed Against John Kerry

The Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation has filed suit against John Kerry. If this gets to trial Kerry and those who made slanderous claims about the conduct of American soldiers in Vietnam will have to support their contentions in a court of law with the possibility of perjury charges if they (again) lie about what they saw:

Thirty five years ago John Kerry slandered an entire generation of men who fought in Vietnam branding them as a "war criminals." Today, much of the same thing is being said about our young men and women in Iraq.

Now, a lawsuit filed in Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas will test the very foundation of Kerry’s anti-war persona for the first time. It isn’t dubious medals or Kerry’s disputed service record in Vietnam that is being called into question. This time Kerry may finally be forced to answer for the events that launched his public career, one that made him an anti-war hero for many American liberals and a turncoat for millions of Vietnam veterans.

The lawsuit (Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation, et al. v. Kenneth Campbell, et al.) challenges the basis, the factual accuracy of then-Lt. (j.g.) Kerry’s acrimonious testimony before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971. It was there Kerry’s public career was catapulted with his now ubiquitous portrayal of American soldiers as murderers, rapists and torturers "who ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam . . . [and] razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan."

Many if not all were members of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), an organization led by Kerry and financed by Jane Fonda during the early 1970s. Now, a number of those "witnesses" will be required to testify, under oath for the first time ever, about what they really did and saw in Vietnam.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Sawyer Effusive About The Beauties Of Potemkin Village

On Thursday's World News on ABC, Diane Sawyer checked in from North Korea, but she proved little more than a conveyor belt for the repressive communist regime's propaganda. Talking to a North Korean Army General, she relayed how “he said to us, 'make it clear to everyone in the United States, if there is another nuclear test, the person responsible is George Bush,' because he said, 'the Bush administration is backing North Korea into a corner with its pressures and its sanctions.'" Sawyer helpfully added that “the General said to us, he does want peace. And he also said, again, reiterated, North Korea will not be the first to use a nuclear weapon.” How reassuring.

In a second segment, Sawyer was taken to a school which she favorably described as “a world away from the unruly individualism of any American school." She gushed: “Ask them about their country, and they can't say enough." A teenage girl declared, in English: “We are the happiest children in the world.” Sawyer ended her piece with video of her and the class singing "Do-Re-Mi" from the Sound of Music. Far from being embarrassed by Sawyer's obsequious approach, anchor Charles Gibson proposed: "A fascinating glimpse of North Korea."

Smallpox Scare Locks Down Florida Hospital

HOLLYWOOD – Memorial Regional Hospital's emergency room was put under lockdown for a short time shortly after 7 Friday morning over worries a sick patient was suffering symptoms similar to smallpox, a hospital official said in an e-mail release.Infectious disease experts at the 690-bed hospital and trauma center quickly confirmed that a patient complaining of a high fever and a skin rash was not suffering from deadly smallpox. They did not say what the patient suffered from.As part of standard procedure, however, the hospital's emergency room was reported closed off for 30 to 45 minutes while doctors diagnosed the symptons.

Let's hope they are telling the truth. Of course, there is greater attention given to such stories these days, but I don't recall ever hearing of such a scare previously.

Muslims can never conform to our ways

It is the only faith on Earth that persuades its followers to seek political power and impose a law — sharia — which shapes everyone's style of life. ...

We have come to regard blasphemy as a symbol of free speech; Islam treats offensive words about the Prophet or the Koran as a serious offence. It is vain to say: "Well, if they come here, they must conform with British society and its easy ways." Muslims will not do that. Their religion forbids it.

Why do we suppose India had to be partitioned? There was no other way of keeping the peace in that great sub-continent.

NY Times Co. 3Q Profit Plunges 39%

NY Times Co. 3Q Profit Plunges 39%, Belo Also Down

By E&P Staff and The Associated Press

Published: October 19, 2006 10:15 AM ET

CHICAGO The New York Times Co. reported Thursday that its third-quarter 2006 profit from continuing operations plunged 39.2% on costs related to its job cuts and a loss on its sale of its 50% stake in the Discovery Times Channel.

Meanwhile, Belo, publisher of The Dallas Morning News, said net income for the quarter fell to $19.2 million, or 19 cents per share, compared to $22.1 million, or 20 cents per share, during the same period last year.

At the New York Times Co., 3Q operating profit was down 48% from the same period in 2005 to $20.5 million on total revenues that slipped 2.4% to $739.6 million.

Reflecting a continuing tough advertising environment, total ad revenue was off 4.2% to 465,476.

Winds of War: “If You Believe In Nothing, You Believe In Everything”

This was said by G.K. Chesterton about a hundred years ago: "When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing, they believe in anything." If we substitute the word ‘culture’ for God, an we have the state of non-Muslim cultures today.

There are two recent articles that bring home this sad fact. One by Melanie Phillips and the other by Luigi Frascat. They describe the threat to our cultural survival.

First, Melanie Philips.

Suddenly , Britain seems to be developing into a cultural and religious battleground. Hard on the heels of Jack Straw’s criticism of the Muslim full-face veil, local government minister Phil Woolas has said that Aishah Azmi, the Dewsbury teaching assistant who insists on wearing such a veil in her primary school classroom, should be sacked. Not to be outdone, the Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, has accused Muslims of promoting a kind of ‘voluntary apartheid’ by shutting themselves away in closed societies and demanding immunity from criticism, corroding the very foundations of British culture. Meanwhile, British Airways is being sued for religious discrimination after it required a Christian woman employee to conceal her cross while permitting other faiths to wear turbans, hijabs or Hindu bangles. This echoed the controversy earlier this month when the BBC agonised over whether newsreader Fiona Bruce should wear a small cross on a chain in case it might cause offence. How can Britain have arrived at a situation where it is seriously argued that a class of children who don’t speak English as their first language should be taught by a shrouded woman whose expression they can’t see and whose voice they can’t even hear properly — while the BBC thinks that wearing the symbol of Britain’s established religion might be offensive? The source of this confusion is a profound loss of national, cultural and religious nerve. The Christian values that once defined national identity have simply collapsed, creating a cultural vacuum which Islam — Britain’s fastest-growing and most assertive religion — is busily filling.

She ends the article with this.

This is why the argument over the place of the veil and the cross in public life is so significant. This is not about prejudice or discrimination. It is about cultural survival.

But the quote from Luigi Frascat about Pope Benedict XVI's speech that caused an uproar in Muslims around the world is even more accurate in describing the current weakness in Western culture undermined by political correctness and multiculturalism.

In its bare essence, the substance of Pope Benedict XVI's argument can be summed up in the following syllogism: Islam is faith devoid of reason; modern secularism is reason devoid of faith.

Islam is a complete way of life. It embraces the spiritual, social, moral, economic and cultural life of its followers, as well as their belief in God. This all encompassing system is similar to the Rule of the Holy Roman Empire and the Popes who headed it up in the Middle Ages. Just as Christian morals, ideals and ideas permeated the society of the Middle Ages to its core as ruled by the Holy Roman Church, so did Islam at the beginning of the 21st Century. A secular culture without absolutes – no right or wrong, no good or evil, cannot stand up to an absolute believing culture with finely defined lines between what they believe and don’t believe, what is advantageous to is and what is not, what they find good and what they find evil, and what behavior is appropriate and what is not. A cultural moral equivalency where everything is equal can not muster the will to stand up for some absolute morals and beliefs. It becomes a culture not worth defending. The belief in self-preservation is lost. The relativistic culture is not worth preserving because in accepting in everything, it believes strongly in nothing.

It’s jihad all the time and not just the militant kind. Our Western Judeo-Christian culture is under attack and most are oblivious to the insidious tactics the Islamists are using to first convert, and if not confront our culture and to bring it in line with Islamic customs, mores and laws.

Repubs about to heap one mistake on top of another

Foley has tipped the scales. It made unavoidable to the American people the conclusion that :

1) The republicans, who have promoted themselves as the party of family values, can't even manage a congressional majority effectively let alone a several campaigns in a world war or

2) They are cynical hypocrites we couldn't stand to be with at a party or dinner, and we'd go home

3) BOTH

The battle inside the republican party which seems to have been brewing since 1988 when Reagan retired is now at full tilt.

Let me make my own feelings clear on this one...James Dobson=Noam Chomsky thru the looking glass. It's that simple.

Morality and ethics have a place in politics, religion does not. Faith has a place, preaching does not. Consciousness raising activities has a place, policy decisions on the basis of what Christ or Moses or Mohammed said DOES NOT. Christianity does not equal conservatism any more than judaism equaled communism (1900's - 1930's, folks).

I'm not sure if the republican party self destructed over religion, hypocrisy, personal greed (Abramoff, Delay, Ney, Cunningham), refusal to take responsibility (Rumsfeld, Frank, et al), or plan incompetence in decision making (Bremer et al), but it took the republicans 12 years to achieve what it took the democrats from 1932 to 1994 to do.

And now, they are about to run an ad over terrorism in a blatant attempt to drive the voters back to them ..."We're probably morons, but we think correctly about the war(?) so you HAVE to vote for us"

In defense of liberty

By Andrew C. McCarthy/Herbert LondonPublished October 20, 2006In 2004, Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, general manager of the Al-Arabiya news channel, courageously wrote, "It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims." It is simply incontestable that the vast majority of terrorist acts are committed by Muslims who unabashedly claim Islamic scripture impels them. We are in the throes of an ideological war, and it would be grossly irresponsible to continue ignoring the patent nexus between radical Islam and terror. It is a sad reality that radicalism is actually mainstream in much of the Islamic world. This is due primarily to the refusal of many Muslims -- not just Muslim terrorists but millions of Muslims -- to accept the cardinal principles of enlightened liberty and democracy. One need not merely infer this. Explicit proof is abundant in both Sunni and Shi'ite Islam. Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's highest Shi'ite authority -- and recipient of high praise by administration officials -- maintains that non-Muslims should be considered in the same category as "urine, feces, semen, dead bodies, blood, dogs, pigs, alcoholic liquors," and "the sweat of an animal who persistently eats [unclean things]." Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University in Egypt, the highest Sunni authority, instructs that Jews are "enemies of Allah [and] descendants of apes and pigs," views he expressly attributes to the Koran. This dehumanizing hatred has been turned against our nation. Mustafa Zakri, a member of parliament in Egypt (the recipient of $2 billion a year in U.S. largess), has asserted that "America is the head of the serpent, and the greatest enemy, which we must confront." In Yemen, a judge recently dismissed charges against 19 terrorists who joined with al Qaeda in fighting U.S. forces in Iraq, reasoning that Islamic law sanctions jihad against occupiers of Muslim lands. In newly liberated Afghanistan, the government attempted to put a man to death for the "crime" of converting from Islam to another religion, a capital offense under Islamic law. In Iraq, homosexuals are executed in Shi'ite-controlled areas -- consistent with a fatwa from the Ayatollah al-Sistani. Meanwhile, Iran, nearing a confrontation with the West over its nuclear program, has developed a missile called "Zelzad 1." Its namesake is a Koranic verse that tells of a conflagration which precipitates Judgment Day. The missile is emblazoned with the slogan: "We will trample America under our feet. Death to America." We believe that being in denial about Islamic militancy profoundly compromises U.S. national security. Our system's toleration of religious belief does not immunize religions from criticisms of the tenets or practices of those belief systems. This is particularly true when the criticized practices, though rhetorically labeled "religion," are actually elements of an imperialistic social system antithetical to equality, liberty, separation of church and state, and other core Western values. Activist efforts to limit America's free marketplace of ideas -- such as the tactic of slandering commonsense criticism as "Islamophobia" -- are contrary to the very foundation of democratic governance. The West cannot cure Islam's propensity to spawn radicalism; this is a matter only Muslims can address. But we must do whatever is necessary to protect our liberty and security. Since the United States is in the midst of a long war for the survival of our way of life, the following steps should immediately be taken: • Congress should enact legislation stating forthrightly that our enemy in the ongoing war is radical Islam. • Immigration from and aid to Muslim countries should be drastically reduced. Upward adjustments should be contingent on measurable reforms that promote liberty while reducing the role of religion in politics. (Provision should be made for asylum for reformers.) • Any Muslim foreign national who will not concede under oath that American law must be followed in the U.S. when it conflicts with Islamic law should be subject to exclusion or deportation. • It should be made clear that a person's status as a Muslim (particularly if he is also a male under age 45 who is a citizen of a country with a substantial Islamic population) is palpably relevant to investigations of terrorist threats. To do otherwise wastes finite investigative resources and challenges the Fourth Amendment's reasonableness requirement by treating all Americans as if they were potential Islamic radicals. • Mosques in the U.S. have been used by Islamic radicals to spread their ideology, as hubs for terror recruitment and paramilitary training, and even for storage and transfer of weapons. While the war ensues, it should be made clear that the FBI and other authorities do not require a criminal predicate to collect intelligence or conduct investigations. Mosques in which violence or unlawful activity is encouraged should be subject to forfeiture and loss of tax-exempt status. • Rigorous examination should be required for certification of Islamic chaplains in the military and the federal and state prison systems. • Congress should create a National Security Court with jurisdiction over terrorism and other national security matters. Alleged alien-terrorists should be designated unlawful enemy combatants (apprehended either inside or outside the U.S.) and be accorded the minimal rights required by American due process standards. Removing their cases from the civilian and military courts will increase the quality of justice in those systems. • With radical Islamic sentiment gaining traction in oil-rich nations, it is imperative that U.S. energy independence become a national priority. Congressional action must be taken to remove the onerous legal and regulatory barriers to the construction and expansion of refineries, production of oil and gas from offshore wells, construction of gas pipelines and other energy transportation infrastructure, and the building of power plants, including alternative generation sources such as solar stations, wind farms, tar sands, nuclear power plants, etc. • Treaty obligations, alliances with other countries and membership in international organizations need to be consistent with national goals. Where they have become obsolete or harmful, they must be reshaped or eliminated. The 20th century was filled with massive assaults on liberty by totalitarian aggressors who questioned the resolve of the defenders of liberty. This flawed assumption of weakness led to vast and unprecedented death and destruction. We make this statement in an attempt to diminish the chances of another such bloody miscalculation, and we pray that the rich benefits of the American model of government will gain a new appreciation around the world.

Andrew C. McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Herbert London is president of the Hudson Institute.

Ahmadinejad threatens the free world. Isn't that cute?

The problem with the prevalent Western liberal attitude is that it cannot accept the existence of a fundamentally irrational player on the world scene. If one believes that all problems can be solved through negotiations, as the EU, UN and American Left do, then one must also believe that the other side is always rational and has the roughly same value system that you do.

So the head-in-the-sand crowd will always insist that if only we keep talking like civilized humans, the other side will act reasonably - because that's what we would do, and we are all the same under the skin, let's sing Kumbaya together in four-part harmony.

Ahmadinejad's outrageous pronouncements have become so commonplace that the Western press seems to be treating him more like an eccentric Kaddafi than a Hitler. Let's look at what is happening, just today:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday called the U.N. Security Council and its decisions "illegitimate."

Ahmadinejad told a crowd of thousands gathered at a pro-Palestinian rally in the capital Tehran Friday that “Israel no longer has a reason to exist, and will soon disappear. The Zionist regime, thank God, has lost all reason to exist”.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Europe on Friday it was stirring up hatred in the Middle East by supporting Israel and said it “may get hurt” if anger in the region boils over.

“You should believe that this regime (Israel) cannot last and has no more benefit to you. What benefit have you got in supporting this regime, except the hatred of the nations?” he said in a speech broadcast on state radio.

“We have advised the Europeans that the Americans are far away, but you are the neighbors of the nations in this region. We inform you that the nations are like an ocean that is welling up, and if a storm begins, the dimensions will not stay limited to Palestine, and you may get hurt,” he said.

"You imposed a group of terrorists ... on the region," he said, addressing the US and its allies. "It is in your own interest to distance yourself from these criminals... This is an ultimatum. Don't complain tomorrow."

"Nations will take revenge," he told a crowd of thousands gathered at a pro-Palestinian rally in the capital Teheran.

Iran, nearing a confrontation with the West over its nuclear program, has developed a missile called "Zelzad 1." Its namesake is a Koranic verse that tells of a conflagration which precipitates Judgment Day. The missile is emblazoned with the slogan: "We will trample America under our feet. Death to America."